AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, has said that the government will continue to recruit and engage Community Health Workers (CHW) in improving health services and fight pandemic diseases like COVID-19.
Ms Mwalimu made the observation in Dar es Salaam over the weekend, while launching guidelines for the community health services and plan as well as use of dashboards as indicators of public health education, spearheaded by the US agency for international Development tulonge Afya project (USAID Tulonge Afya) in its “Let’s Talk about Health” project.
She said the CHWs who would be known as ‘afya komandoo’ would help in enlightening the general public on the importance of immunisation services, including health education and sensitisation, nutrition and prevention from communicable diseases, HIV/ Aids as well as maternal and child health care.
“CHW would help greatly in fighting diseases’ outbreaks including Cholera, Diarrhoea and now coronavirus pandemic by educating the population in village or suburb levels.
The CHWs will be recognised, identified and tasked to report to the village government and nearby Health Centres,”
Speaking at the same event, the Benjamini Mkapa Foundation Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ellen Mkondya Senkoro said that her organisation was in final process of supporting the government in the recruitment exercise, adding that more than 800 of them have been employed within a week.
“We are ready to support the efforts by facilitating flow of information to and from local to national level. This would be done by identifying CHWs and providing them with communication tools, which include airtime, preventive and working tools,” she pointed out.
Commenting, World Health Organisation (WHO) Tanzania Country Representative Dr Tigest Ketsela Mengestu commended the initiative of recruiting the CHWs, noting that it was important in promoting health at the grassroots.
“If educated, motivated and supported the Community Health workers would play an important role in health promotion in the population.
They help the community in preventing and controlling diseases’ outbreak like the novel coronavirus,” added Dr Mengestu, at the launch via a video conference.
She also expressed WHO’s commitment to the government of Tanzania by promising to promote the CHWs’ activities that is vital in attaining economic development and achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
On her part, Shalini Bahaguna, who is the UNICEF’s Country Representative, thanked Tanzania government for the good leadership that is promoting health in the communities.
However, she called upon the community health stakeholders to address emerging challenges in the country, as they prepare new health policies, which build better and stronger health systems at the community levels.
